salsa high

Tango is fun!? Well, largely so, but even then that depends on your perspective.? In the past I’d always thought that tango was a passionate dance between two people very much in love – something that was fast and sharp yet smooth as silk, where passion flowed,?where two people could share a lifetime of love?in that one dance.

Months ago on a?Tuesday?I was brimming with excitement when I headed down to Xenbar?for its Tango Night.? The excitement, however, fell to a slump and then even further when I saw how tango was danced there.? The truth is, I’d never really seen anyone dance tango before, so that was my first time, and, to be honest, it sucked big.? I watched a couple dance and, yes, it was smooth, but where’s the passion?? Where’s the sharpness?? The music was slow and largely boring, you know, the kind of music you hear and just can’t even fathom a hint of an urge to dance.? From then, I just lost all interest in the dance and concentrated on salsa.

Watching “Take the Lead”, however, changed my perception of tango totally.? If you haven’t watched it, GO WATCH.? The tango was everything I thought it was and more.? And the music was the soft, slow, sissy music that I heard in Xen.? When Antonio Banderas dipped his partner at the end of the dance, I felt this incredible urge to want to do that too.?

I didn’t know where to go to fulfil that desire though.? Coincidentally, Xen was engaged by someone (I really don’t know who) to perform somewhere (I’m guessing it’s in the Kallang area), some time (my hunch is the end of this month or early next month).? As it turns out, we had to do a tango choreography for the performance and lizzie and I started learning tango exactly a week ago.?

It was frustrating at first.? The?steps were so alien, and lizzie put it quite succintly when she said that we were “fish out of water”.? However, after much help from Nancy and Manfred who got the steps amazingly quickly, we got used to the?steps and the timing?sooner than expected.? Getting used to the dance didn’t take away the frustration though.? I snapped at her, she snapped back and?we fought quite a bit about the steps and the lead and follow.

Now, however, we’re not fighting anymore, although I still sense some irritation on her?part sometimes.? I think we’ve got the choreography (which is simple yet beautiful) down already, thanks to her – she’s an amazing dancer.? Considering that we’ve only been learning tango for less than a week, I think we’re doing pretty well.? Yep, so right now tango is fun!

Every night for the past 2 weeks, I hobbled out of the taxi close to midnight and trudged wearily up the stairs. My legs are almost jelly when i reach my place, four flights of stairs later. My feet are so bruised and battered after dancing for hours every night that they ache perpetually. Tien yew is probably in the same state as I am, since I work him like a dog. I hound him constantly to work on our choreograph and shines. That guy really has an amazing memory. In fact I think we work each other to the bone. The number of bruises and abrasions that I have attest how many times we did those?stunts. ?But everything is worth it.

?Salsa has never been the same after I danced with tien yew. 🙂

I’m beat. I mean really beat, like fall-flat-on-my-face kind of beat. Why? Well, for the past week, I’ve been going to Xenbar for practice from about 6 pm till late (about 11+, I’m not sure though, but the trains have gone and cabs are damn hard to hail at that time), and you know I have to wake up at about 5 am the next day for this legalised national enslavement programme they call service. So my head hits the pillow at about 1 am and I’ve got to wake up at 5. Wonderful! So there you go, I got 4 hours of sleep every night for the past week. Is it any wonder that I’m grumpy, that I’m in a daze most of the day, that I’m like a zombie creeping along as the day whizzes by? Bah.

I love dancing with lizzie.

Hey peeps! I wrote this short intro article on Bachata, cos personally Bachata is a dance that is very close to my heart. And I just wanted to share this with anyone who’s wondering what Bachata is all about. 😉

Bachata music comprises mainly the guitar, accompanied usually by other instruments such as claves or bongo drums. The end result is usually a very catchy and danceable tune. It is very easy to identify a Bachata song. Other than the distinctive strumming of the guitar, the music is in counts of 4. Bachata music also has an overall romantic feel to it. This is not surprising, since many of the songs speak of romance and heartbreak (According to a Puerto Rican friend who translated some of the songs for me).

Bachata originated in the 1960s in the Dominican Republic and did not have a very prestigious start. Since it came from the rural areas and countryside, Bachata was usually associated with poor rural migrants residing in urban shantytowns and negative cultural value implying rural backwardness and vulgarity. However over the years, that negative association faded, replaced by one that depicted fun, merriment, get-togethers and romance.

This popular partner dance is probably familiar to Salsa and Merengue dancers. Even in Singapore, one can hear a number of Bachata songs being played in Union Square every night. Bachata can be danced with an open hold or in an embrace. There are no complicated steps or turns in Bachata, just that dancers need to synchronize their body movements, if not they would look like they are struggling with each other. There is some degree of intimacy involved in the embrace, since the lady has to stand with her legs in between the man. Therefore, unless the ladies are comfortable doing the embrace, I would recommend that the guys stick to the open hold.

Here’s an article written by yours truly a few days ago that might be of interest to some, especially those who have puzzled about the mystery of the clave and / or?dancing on 2.? This article, however, requires some background in music, so be warned.? Grab it here: Salsa Clave

This is the blog of 2 salsa lovers who’ve been dancing for about 11 months.? Over the course of our dancing, we will write about our thoughts and frustrations in the learning process.? Hopefully, some useful information and tips can be gleaned from these pages.

Viva la Salsa!